Thursday, Nov 20, 2003 at 16:07
Just a follow on to my previous reply.
Below is a copy of my email I sent. Can everyone tell me if I am off the mark in my comments or are they indeed valid comments.
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Good afternoon,
Please accept what I am about to say as purely my opinion only and also as "constructive criticism"
I have just read the latest 4WD XXXX, and to be honest, I do not feel that some of the pictures in some stories, portray 4WDers in general in a good light.
Example: in the story XXXXX XXXXX, there is pictures of the owner doing fairly hard turns in the sand, driving through the waters edge, "jumping" his vehicle over the top of a
sand dune and spinning his wheels in what is probably a creek.
Now I know and acknowledge that this sort of thing happens, but wouldn't it be more responsible journalism if this sort of thing was done on private property such as a 4WD Park, instead of on public land. ( I have assumed from the photo's that this is public land and will happily stand corrected if you could prove it wasn't)
If you have to photograph these vehicles on public land, maybe the photos should be a little bit more conservative, but if you want to make the story a bit more interesting, then find some private property and place a disclaimer in the story.
4WDers as such have a bad enough reputation of being environmental rapists as it is, and some of these types of photo's really are not helping that image.
I know that you will probably point out that this magazine is bought by 4WD enthusiasts, but I feel that those types of photos could be used by some of the "greenie movements" to their advantage and be shown out of context, not to mention that various government departments could use some of these images to lock us out of even more public land.
I feel that magazines such as yours have a right to cater to the enthusiasts but at the same time, you have a responsibility to portray us in the right manner to the general public that do not understand our interests and hobbies.
Anyway, as I said, these are my thoughts only and are meant as constructive criticisism.
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